How do you cancel... a continuous payment authority?

15:40, 6 Jul 2013

Updated 16:05, 31 Jul 2013

ByThe Journal

Continuous payment authorities or CPAs are fairly common and you might not even realise you have one

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Continuous payment authorities or CPAs are fairly common and you might not even realise you have one. They are a recurring payment which is often used for goods and services like gym membership, magazine subscriptions and insurance.

If you have given a firm the long number on your card and it takes regular payments from your account, you may well have a CPA, which allows firms to vary the amount of cash they take.

Regulator the Financial Conduct Authority has found that some banks and building societies were not always cancelling these payments when told to do so.

They have tightened procedures, so the money should stay in your account if you tell your bank you want to cancel and you can get a refund if this does not happen.

In most cases, you should also be able to cancel a payment simply by contacting the firm taking the payment and asking it to stop.

Once you have told your bank you want to cancel, it must do this immediately and it cannot insist that you tell the firm receiving payments first. However, telling both the bank and the firm taking payments that you want to cancel is a good “belt and braces” strategy.

Also bear in mind that if you cancel a CPA, you will still be responsible for paying any money you still owe.